[i]n essence, the [cultural metaphor teaching] method involves identifying some phenomenon or activity of a nation's culture that all or most of its members consider to be very important . . . The characteristics of the metaphor then become the basis for describing and understanding the essential features of the society (p.7).

Explanation and education cannot help but involve the use of metaphors, actually. Whether explicit or not, and whether the explainer realizes that (s)he is using metaphors or not, knowledge is educed in humans by drawing comparisons with other things which are already understood. Consider, for example, a dictionary, which is the most straightforward explanatory text imaginable. A dictionary explains what one word means in terms of other words which the reader must already know. While this is not the most common sense of the word metaphor, there is no essential difference; in metaphors, as in dictionary entries, one thing is explained in terms of other things which are already better understood. All education involves the use of metaphors.

Gannon’s choice to use metaphors explicitly is a good one for several reasons, the most obvious of which is that it makes his text more interesting and understandable. Furthermore, Gannon's approach encourages the reader's awareness of the learning process; it serves as a reminder that theory is imperfect, and that there is danger in applying cultural theories--whether metaphoric or not--very narrowly.

My experience growing up in America validates Gannon's specific use of the American football metaphor to describe American culture. For one thing, football is such an integral part of American culture that one could learn a lot about America simply by studying football itself without considering it in metaphoric terms. In the context of an explicitmetaphor, it is even more useful.